The Disciple’s Rest – Dr. Charles Stanley – Called to be a Disciple – Part 8

In Mark 6, the disciples were sent out to do work that was difficult emotionally, physically, and most of all spiritually. They were constantly working and serving other people for at least several weeks and possibly several months, and they were weary.

In today’s world, people still work to the point of feeling drained. You might be feeling that way even today. Maybe not always from spiritual work, but the busyness of life and the fullness of people’s schedules have caused many to become exhausted.

In this message, Dr. Stanley calls Christians to follow the example of God in creation, and Jesus in the New Testament, to get alone, get quiet, and rest.

This message is part of the series “Called to be a Disciple.”

For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch

with a message from God’s word here’s Charles Stanley Mark chapter 6 now to get the whole story of what’s Happening Here let’s begin in verse 7 and read through verse 12 and then we’ll skip over to verse 30 and read through verse 32 so Mark chapter 6 beginning in verse 7 and he called unto him the 12 and began to send them forth by two and two and gave them power over unclean spirits and commanded them that they should take nothing for their Journey except the staff only no script no bread no money in their purse but be

shaw with sandals and not put on two coats and he said to them in what place soever ye enter into the house there abide until you depart from that place and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when you depart from then Shake take off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that City so when he finished that commission the scripture says and they went out and preach that men should repent now if

you’ll slip over to verse 30 they’ve been out preaching for several weeks or several months and now they returned and the scripture says in verse 30 and the the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things both what they had done and what they had taught and he said unto them Come Ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while but there were many coming and going and they had no leisure so much as to eat and they departed into a desert place by ship privately I want to talk this

morning about the rest of the disciple not the rest of the disciples but the rest of the disciple it is not only commanded that a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ would labor and work diligently but equally is it true that he must be willing and ready to rest from his labors Jesus Christ was not a superstar nor was he a Superman he was God In the Flesh and because of a self-limitation he came into this world with a limitation upon himself and that human body became weary and fatigued just like your human body in mine he was

limited in his knowledge he said not even I know when I’m going to return not even the angels in heaven only my Father which is in heaven so that we see Jesus often times as this superhuman man walking upon the Earth but when you read the book of Hebrews it says he was tempted in every Point such as as we and if you’ll examine the gospels you’ll discover that Jesus Christ was a man he was God but he was man had he only been God there are many things from which you and I could gather no Comfort had he

only been man he could not have been the support and the Redeemer that you and I need he was God man two sides of the same coin now when you come to this passage concerning this one statement that he made to his disciples I think he’s giving us here a very very essential part of the Christian life and that is it is not only essential that a man labor and work diligently and hard but likewise that he must rest and throughout the ministry of Jesus Not only was he working but he was taking time to rest and if you’ll examine for

example all of nature as God has made it he has given us a rhythm in life for example the animal kingdom the plant kingdom Humanity we all have seasons and God intended that there be not only labor but rest he gave the Sabbath day in order that man May rest from his labors and we in our own country we say you can’t make enough money working six days a week so we work seven days a week work people in the heart attacks ules and all kinds of problems because of the greed of our life Jesus was following the command of his heavenly father he

was following a rhythm that God the father had given to humanity and to to Mankind and to the earth when he created it I suppose in my own confession I’d have to say I was thinking this week and thinking about this passage when I used to work in the texal mill between um seasons and going to college I would not have dared work on Sunday and often times they’d have a rush order and they say we’ll have to have everybody work seven days I’d say sorry not going to do that and I suppose I have been more

guilty of breaking that commandment after I got out of the secular world and when I was in it because then I knew come Sunday there was one place for me to be and sometime that’s not always true in serving the lord and I think that is true in everybody’s life there are times when you have to readjust and relook at your life Jesus is giving a principle here for disciples now if you have no intention of ever being a disciple of Jesus Christ my friend it is just as applicable to you for your mental balance for your physical balance

for your emotional balance what he’s saying here is a principle that either must be adhered to or we suffer the penalty of that it is a principle that God is given to us now I want you to see several things here if you don’t get the context of what has happened you’ll miss the impetus I believe of what Jesus is trying to say if you’ll move back over now and save just hold that Mark 6 move back over to Matthew chapter 10 because Matthew chapter 10 uh is a rather uh expanded uh uh part of what we just read concerning

Christ’s message to uh his disciples in Mark chapter 6 in verse 7-12 that’s just an abbreviation of what happened in Matthew chapter 10 beginning in um verse 5 here is an expanded uh narration of what Mark 6 says and I want to read through just certain verses of this for you to get the context now of what those Apostles have been doing the kind of difficult is they’ve been through in order to get the impact of what he’s saying to them when he says come apart and rest a while beginning in verse 5 he

says now these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel now he’s sending his Apostles out he’s been teaching them now he’s going to send them out two by two he’s going to send them out on their own to to share what first of all they have seen him do and what they’ve heard him teach now I just want to move through some of these for you to get the context of the

emotional involvement of these men look if you will now in verse 7 he says as you go preach that is you have resting upon you the awesome responsibility of sharing the truth to the nation of Israel that is in the process of rejecting him because when this chapter begins it is the beginning beginning of the period of opposition by the Jews toward Jesus Christ he says you’re to preach the kingdom preach the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand to many who will not believe you verse eight as you’re preaching he says you are to heal the

sick you are to become involved with the needs of mankind you to cleanse those lepers whom you see walking on the one side of the street ringing their Bell to warn you not to come anywhere close to them though who living outside the city walls of Jerusalem because of their leprosy he says you are to heal the leper cleanse the leper then he said to them you’re to raise the dead and you can imagine the impact that must have had upon those Apostles you mean we to raise dead men as you go preaching the kingdom of God as you go healing men of

their diseases as you go cleansing the leper you to raise men from the dead verse nine he said now as you go you to provide no gold no silver nor brass in your purses you to go as you are trusting that a laborer is worthy of his hire and that you will be provided for as you go now knowing old Peter I imagine this was a real stumbling block to him verse 10 neither two coats neither shoes nor staves for the Workman is worthy of his hire then if you’ll move on down to verse 14 he says now as you go preaching you can expect

opposition and irritation and persecution verse 14 whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house of City shake off the dust off your feet verse 16 he says I’m sending you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be ye therefore wise as serpents harmless as doves verse 17 he says now as you go preaching you are to beware of men they’ll deliver you up to the counsels they’ll scourage you in the synagogue you can expect opposition heartache and trial verse 19 but when they deliver you up take no

thought on how or what you’re going to say because the spirit of God is going to say to you in the same hour what you ought to say and to do verse 22 you shall be hated of all men for my sake you going to the house of Israel to your own people when you go to share the gospel with them they’re not going to love you they’re going to hate you and despise you because you’re preaching the New Kingdom verse 23 when they persecute you in this city just run flee to the next city and preach the gospel there

verse 24 the disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his Lord verse 25 it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant be as his Lord if they’ve called The Master of the House build above that is the Devil Himself you’re acting like the devil casting out spirits in the devil he says if they’ve accused me of that they going to accuse you of the same thing verse 26 fear them not therefore for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not

be known verse 27 what I’m going to tell you privately in secret in the darkness you to shout it to the on the rooftops what I speak to you in the ear you to make known the ears of men verse 28 fear not them which kill the body but cannot touch the soul verse 31 fear not therefore year of more value than many sparrows verse 36 and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household verse 38 he that taketh not his cross and fth after me is not worthy of me he that findeth his life shall lose it he that loseth

his life for my sake the same shall send it and then the scripture says he sent them out now with that kind of a Ministry before them these 12 move out to share the gospel to a host world now they’ve been gone several weeks or several months and the scripture says at the end of that time they come back in verse 30 if you’ll notice now back in Mark 6 and the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all the things both they had done and what they had taught it’s interesting in that verse

that it is given in the same order of Acts chap 1 uh verse one when Luke is writing and says that he’s that in his Luke gospel that he told the things that Jesus Christ began both to do first and then the teach when they came back the scripture says that they had a report meeting it was time for reports and the scripture says they all got together and they told him they gave testimonies to Christ of the things they had done and what they had taught now I’ve been in some testimony meetings before but

wouldn’t you like to have been in that one when all those 12 Apostles sat around and they said why you should I let me tell you what happened and I can imagine old Peter because he was the most impulsive one he probably had to give testimony between John and Thomas’s and between uh Andrew and Phillip he had to give one probably about every other one to talk about all the things that the Lord Jesus Christ had done through him they had seen people rise from the dead or he would never have given them the power they had seen people healed

who had never seen nor heard nor spoken in their lives their life was complete is saturated and IM mesed in the emotional experience of pouring out themselves to others during these weeks in these months and I imagine that Jesus must have sat there uh with great admiration and sometime chuckling a little bit and thinking about the testimonies and how absolutely excited and thrilled they were at just the people who had been who had listened to them who had repented of their sins who’d been healed who’d been raised from

the dead the emotional involvement he saw in these men because you see up to this point he had kept them rather close to himself they had watched him perform many miracles but now they were cutting their own teeth out there two by two sharing their faith I’m sure they had testimonies not only of God’s miraculous power in their lives but some disappointments and more than likely they probably had to say at this time as they said later on in the 17th chapter of Matthew when they had tried to heal a young man he was not healed they said

what happened and Jesus said to them this kind of healing this kind of Miracle comes only by fasting and praying so I certain that everything that happened on this particular encounter was not all success but had its failures and its defeats but I believe the spirit and the movement of that report meeting was a glorious testimony of the power of God now when they finished that I can imagine they said well when are we going again let’s go right back what about us starting out next week if we had that much success

this week let’s go again Lord and I can imagine he probably said nothing for a few moments and he said uh well I’ve been thinking about it they were probably all geared up for another another missionary tour right there in that particular area to share the gospel and when he was quiet for a moment the scripture says that Jesus said no I’m not going on another missionary trip right now but he said now watch what he said now it’s so beautiful the way it’s written in the English he said to them Come Ye yourselves apart

into a desert place and rest a while for there were many coming and going and they had no leisure that is they didn’t even have the opportunity to eat and they departed into a desert place by ship privately now you’d think that a group of people who were as fired up as these apostles were they’d be primed to go but Jesus in his wisdom said to them no not going back again right now but what we going to do he says we’re either going to come apart and rest a while or just come apart at the scams that’s

really what he was saying to you either come apart and rest a while or you’ll come apart now I believe here’s a principle for God’s people and I believe it is true not only in serving the lord in in your church or wherever you may be but it is true in your business in your home life in every facet of your life and probably one of the greatest reasons for difficulties in the homes today is that Mom and Dad husbands and wives do not use the same principle in their family life that Jesus is talking about

here come apart and rest a while now let’s look at these two verses for a moment verse 30 he says when they had gathered themselves together to him they told him all things I mean they didn’t leave out anything they wanted him to know all the intricate details because they had become so involved in what was going on it says they told him all the things they had done and they had taught then he said look in verse 31 then he said Come Ye yourselves apart into a desert place now the word desert here does not

mean some Barren location but the word in the Greek is Aras which means a place of quietness a place where you can be alone a place away from people Solitude a place that is private he was not talking about going out into a hot desert I don’t think that’d be very comforting for men who are already physically exhausted he said I want you to come away to a place of quietness a place that is deserted and lonely and rest a while that is regain your physical energy regain your composure then he said for there were many coming

and going and that is the people were coming and going all the time and wherever they could be found there were those who were coming to be taught and coming to be healed and coming for needs and we’ll notice uh in verse 33 that when they did get away and they were found here came the people again seeking the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples when it says Leisure the word does not mean Leisure it means an opportunity they were so busy they didn’t even have an opportunity to eat their meals in quietness verse 32 so they departed into

a desert place that is a place of solitude and price in quietness by a ship privately now I want us to notice two things here here because I believe here is the principle involved that in the life of every believer in the life of every disciple in the life of every single Christian when we are laboring whether it be in the business World whether it be in your home in the life of the church in the ministry of the church whatever it might be there are times when it is more essential to rest than it is to labor it is far more

important to rest than it is to work far more important to be quiet than it is to speak far more important to do nothing than to do something far more important to be inactive than to be active and this is what Jesus was saying to them in spite of the multitudes and think about jesus’ life for a moment he lived 30 years for a threeyear Ministry now you would have thought that for three years he would have gone 24 hours a day 365 days of the year going morning noon and night in the Supernatural power that God

gave him in order to get the gospel to as many people as he could as quickly as he could because the whole of redemption rested upon him and his ability and capacity to share with enough people intensely enough that when he ascended it would all be left in good hands only three years did he have and in spite of that brief Ministry the scripture says that Jesus took those little physical breaks away from the throngs away from the crowds away away from people who were sick away from the needy away from those who are needy he

just turned walk right off and left them now if some pastor at somebody who was in need folks would want to explode but my friend the spiritual principle is when the time comes the rest you rest and my friend if you live to be 1,000 years of age whatever your ministry may be whatever you believe God has called you to do you will never be able to walk off and rest without leaving peace people in need never because the world will constantly be in need the principle is you don’t rest when there’s no need

you rest when the time to rest comes and you let God take care of the need now the two things I want you to get down I want you to write these down now they’re going to be two sets of fours in case you want to get them down when he says come apart he’s saying first of all to come apart from something to come apart from something he said to them Come Ye apart and rest a while he was saying I want you to come apart from something remembering the emotional involvement these men were in the first thing he was saying is this

come apart from something number one come apart and rest a while from the mental fatigue in service toward God come apart and rest a while from mental fatigue now you imagine the kind of mental fatigue they were suffering by this time when they had been out preaching the gospel and and uh having to defend the message that they were preaching concerning the New Kingdom of God in the light of Jews who believe they were simply a sect of the Nazarene the mental fatigue they experienced in having to defend their faith and share

it with people with great opposition the second thing he called them to rest from is emotional strain mental fatigue secondly emotional strain because you see they had involved themselves eles with people who were lepers and all of their lives they’ve been taught you cross the street when you see a leper if there’s one person in life you avoid you avoid the person who’s a leper suddenly those disciples found themselves having to look in the eyes and touch the bodies of men who were leprous reaching down into the hearts

emotionally of those who were sick walking into a home where there was suffering and anxiety and pain and sorrow over someone who was dead even though they knew they had the power to raise that person from the dead it was the sense of the burden and the sorrow and the heartache that that melted their hearts and brought upon them the tremendous emotional strain which they suffered he says you to come apart from the emotional strain the third thing he said was you to come apart from the bodily weariness that you’re suffering

those men were natural men now Peter and these James and John were fisherman and Levi or Matthew was a tax collector these men knew what it meant to work they knew what it meant to toil all night long fishing but listen there’s something different about pure physical labor than when you mix physical labor mental fatigue and emotional strain unless there is a coming apart for rest those three mixed together will destroy you and Jesus said to them you to come aside for bodily rest they knew what it meant to labor but never had they

labored under the same conditions of the tremendous mental fatigue of pouring out their minds preaching the gospel arguing and defending the faith the emotional strain of people’s tremendous overwhelming needs and then continuously going day after day after day from one city to the other sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ then he said to them you’re likewise to come apart the four thing from the spiritual drein from the spiritual drain in your life because you see when you’re continuously giving out

as a Sunday school teacher many of you are sharing your faith week after week there is a drain on your spiritual life un unless you are continuously aware of the fact there must be periods of rest there must be periods of relaxation there must be periods when God gives back to you and infuses into you and energizes you that which you have given out constantly day after day so he said to them come apart Come Ye yourselves he set apart and rest a while rest a while from mental fatigue rest a while from this emotional strain of your life rest

a while he said from bodily weariness rest a while from the spiritual drain of giving out and continuously pouring out your life upon others now when Jesus said rest a while he wasn’t talking about the same thing that he speaking of here in Matthew chap 11 uh he talks about rest here though it may be included it’s not the real rest that he’s referring when he says come unto me all you that labor and the heavy laden and I’ll give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and

lowly in heart and ye shall find rest under your souls now I think he’s primarily talking here about people who living under great sense of guilt and sin and Disobedience and loss in carnal Christians but here he’s talking about arrest that will revive his children a rest that will make them fit again to do the work that he’s called them to do now as you think about your own life and think about uh uh constantly pouring out and constantly taking in there’s a phrase here I want you to notice it has to do with those who were

interfering with their private life and their a time of uh relaxation verse 31 it says and he said to them Come Ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while for there were many coming and going coming and going now watch this the the only way for the believer the only way for the disciple if he’s going to have maximum performance for God maximum service for God there must be a coming and going there must be a going into the Lord Jesus Christ privately and quietly to listen to him there must be a going out to men to